How could you use scientific thinking to test a hypothesis about oversleeping?

Answer 1

It would be interesting to know what your hypothesis about oversleeping is, however, I am able to make my own hypothesis. I propose that people who oversleep are just as groggy as people who do not get enough sleep. A possible way to test this hypothesis would be to have 3 groups of volunteers, one of which sleeps at night for only 4 hours, one of which sleeps for 8 hours, and one of which sleeps for 12 hours. You administer some kind of test, perhaps of English and math skills, or of motor skills, and compare the performance of the three groups. You could then also switch people into different groups, so that for example the people who got too little sleep now are getting too much sleep, and then see how everybody does on the tests. The more people you test, the more statistically meaningful your results will be (although, of course, it also costs more to do more testing - this could turn into an expensive study).